Yengeni’s house damaged in fire

The Cape Town home of African National Congress National Executive Committee member Tony Yengeni has been severely damaged in a fire. His elderly mother and her caregiver were the only ones present when the house was caught alight early on Monday morning.

It is believed the fire was started by an electrical fault in the suburb of Milnerton. The fire started in the main bedroom and destroyed clothes and furniture and some of the family’s treasured memorabilia.

Yengeni’s mother and caregiver both escaped unharmed.

“Everything is wiped out there’s absolutely nothing, clothes, nothing yes we can talk about the damage that’s not really much of a problem because damage whatever that happened here it’s something that is material what is important is that there is no loss of life and people are fine,” says homeowner Lumka Yengeni.

The rest of the family was in Gauteng on business trip when disaster struck.

“I received a call on my phone from ADT to say my alarm has gone off I then called home and then spoke with the lady and the lady checked the alarm and she could see from the light of the alarm because if the alarm has gone off it’s going to flicker. If it hasn’t then there is nothing then she said the house is on fire. So the first thing that I did is to ask her to go to the bigger house and take my mother in law out. The doors were locked because there was someone else who was in the house with my mother in law.”

Only the guest section of the house was unaffected. Yengeni says they do not suspect foul play at this stage and police are investigating.